I tried a new software program Tell Me More – Beginning Spanish because I wanted to have more listening.
What was my goal? My goal was listening to discrete items and pick out new vocabulary and grammar items. There are different pictures in a house and there is a dialog between 2 friends, one showing them her ne house. The person says something and you can choose one of 3 written sentences to respond to the sentence. All responses are correct, just give a different meaning. All the sentences are written in Spanish.
What strategies did I do to meet my goal: To meet my goal of listening I had to slightly change how to do the activity, I covered the words with a piece of paper. This totally changed this activitiy into a listening activity which it would not have been otherwise. I played the sentence and then played each response to see if I understood the response. If I didn’t understand, I used the built in glossary to help me with vocabulary words. Next time to practice more speaking when I do the dialog, I think I am going to go through the dialog again and try to respond without listening to or reading the sentences. (Tell Me More has speech recognition, but I did not have a microphone).
To work on vocabulary, spelling and grammar, After I completed the dialog, I skipped some vocabulary exercises and did a group of other activities, concluding with a dictation. The group of activities included a reading / grammar identification exercise, a crossword puzzles, a word order exercise. All the activities helped to reinforce the vocabulary and grammar points in the dialog and I was surprised the additional exposure was so helpful in doing the final dictation.
How did the difficulty level change what I did. I tried to do the dictation before the vocabulary activities, but it was too difficult so I went back and did the activities. Depending on the difficulty level, I used the glossary and get answer buttons when I couldn’t use any contextual clues. Throughout I added items to my on-line WORD vocabulary, grammar and elision lists. Then, I would go back and do the item again. I still can’t believe how little correct Spanish I know. I definitely enjoying learning the correct forms, but my confidence has been shaken.